


Holes

by violet_scythe



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dick Grayson is Batman, DickDami Week 2016!, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 00:09:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7954417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violet_scythe/pseuds/violet_scythe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate universe Grayson got dumped into a timeline where Damian never died, Dick never went back to being Nightwing.</p>
<p>But this Dick lost his Damian and there was no resurrection, just the cold caress of insanity.</p>
<p>What will he do faced with a living Damian?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holes

He was crouched on a metal platform in a corner of the batcave that held the hole in the universe that would send him back to his home. His world.

 

The whirling vortex was at his back and wrapped in his arms was the person he missed the most, the one whose death had sent him in a downward spiral that he had yet to save himself from.

 

Damian stood stiff in his arms, uncomfortable with his embrace, only there because his mentor had prodded him to say goodbye, and he’d taken advantage. Even though he wasn’t _his_ Grayson the boy couldn’t quite find it in himself to shrug him off.

 

He looked upward, past the young boy’s head and into the eyes of his doppelganger. In this world Bruce had continued with his Batman Inc. plan and succeeded. Leading this world’s Dick to stay in Gotham and watch over his Robin, Damian Wayne.

 

Here there had been no Leviathan. No death.

 

He had spent three months on this Earth, three months watching this Damian. He had grown taller, eyes level with his collarbone, spiky hair shaggy as it grew longer, limbs ache with unexpected growth spurts.

 

Three months watching Damian laugh, play with Titus, Alfred the cat and Batcow.

 

Three months to watch a place where Damian had been allowed to turn thirteen.

 

He watched the other him standing silently in the batsuit, face expressionless as he gazed at them. But it was like looking in a mirror. That man was as far from calm as a person could be.

 

His shoulders were stiff and legs bulged with strain as he forced himself to hold still. Even though he’d pushed Damian forward to say goodbye to the strange Grayson and give a reluctant hug he was wary. He knew.

 

He knew what he would do if their situations had been reversed. But he’d never lost his Robin. He’d had _years_ -while he, he’d had months, a year at most.

 

It wasn’t enough.

 

Not even with storing all the memories inside his mind to the point they shined like diamonds, Damian’s, his Damian’s face, all bloody and white, chest cold and still in his arms kept intruding. It wasn’t enough-not nearly enough. He needed more. More time, more… _everything_.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

He kept eye contact with the Bat standing a few feet away as he cupped the back of Damian’s head and gave a quick nerve pinch, letting the boy’s body collapse into his and threw his hand bombs as the other Grayson launched himself forward.

 

It was too late, too slow-he always was.

 

He threw himself into the vortex, arms wrapped around his stolen treasure and smiled as he heard his bombs explode.

 

A sharp, ringing cry of desperation cut off as they fell backward and he let his eyes close and pressed his face into the top of Damian’s hair, letting the smell soothe him, knowing what he had done could never be forgiven.

 

He knew the bombs were a temporary measure. The Bat would come for his Robin, would follow him into the depths of hell to get him back. He knew because he _was_ him.

 

He would come. He would find them, stalk them to the end of all the universes if he had to.

 

He felt his mouth curl into a dangerous smile as they continued to fall, a knife slash across his face, felt the pull of his insanity tug him deeper down into the abyss.

 

The Bat would come to take Damian away, away from him.

 

He was welcome to try.

**Author's Note:**

> Like the story? [Tip the writer](https://ko-fi.com/A166TC2)


End file.
